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Archaeology of North America

Archaeology of North America. The Far North. The Far North Introduction. At the time of contact arctic peoples were spread across the north A number of linguistic groups are present They practiced a highly varied hunter-gather economy in a land of great diversity

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Archaeology of North America

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  1. Archaeology of North America The Far North

  2. The Far NorthIntroduction • At the time of contact arctic peoples were spread across the north • A number of linguistic groups are present • They practiced a highly varied hunter-gather economy in a land of great diversity • Sea mammals, fish, caribou, musk ox and other animals were hunted • A variety of vegetal remains were gathered • When maritime hunting began is debated • Older sites are submerged and affected by isostatic rebound

  3. The Far NorthThe Arctic Environment • Beringia is open for much of the glaciation • Several mountain ranges are found throughout the north • Vast, broken lowlands are often found between these ranges, esp. in Alaska • The interior of Alaska was unglaciated • East of the Yukon River was glaciated by the Laurentide ice sheet • East of the Hudson Bay is a rocky glaciated plateau of the Canadian Shield • Greenland is mostly glaciated except the coast

  4. The Far NorthThe Arctic Environment • The northern climate is harsh, with cold, long, dark winters and brief summers • Permafrost is close to the surface resulting in many bogs and swamps • In fact winter is better for people than the summer • The boarder between the Arctic and Sub-Arctic is marked by a transitional tree line • Tundra (vegetation is sparse, with mosses, lichens and the occasional dwarfed tree) • Taiga (boreal forest, dense spruce, hemlock and pine forests that are impenetrable in most places)

  5. Tundra interior Tundra coast

  6. Taiga forest

  7. The Far NorthThe Arctic Animals • Only a few species of terrestrial mammals live in the arctic • Caribou (most common), musk ox, lemmings, arctic fox, wolves, bears and a variety of birds including waterfowl (ducks, geese, swans and other sea birds) • Sea mammals and fish are hunted along the coasts • Char, salmon, whitefish, whales, seals, otters and walrus

  8. The Far NorthThe Sub Arctic Animals • There are more land animals in the sub arctic • Woodland caribou, moose and waterfowl are the most common to hunt, but beaver and mink were important for their pelts during European contact • Warmer waters attract sea animals as well • Shrimps, seawater plankton and other small marine animals attract the dolphins and whales in the summer

  9. The Far NorthThe Paleo-Arctic Tradition c. 8000-5000 BC • Connection between Siberia and NA • D’uktai and Alaskan sites • Microblade technology • 9000 BC Beringia is broken • After 8000 BC a greater diversity of h&g flourished in Alaska and are referred to as the Paleo-Arctic Tradition • For more than 4000 years these groups were spread over northwestern NA • Unfortunately there are very few sites • Most are isolated scatters in the interior • A question of submerged sites

  10. The Far NorthThe Paleo-Arctic Tradition c. 8000-5000 BC • Lithics of this period are marked by • Microblades, small wedge-shaped cores (the most distinctive artefact), some leaf-shaped bifaces, scrapers and graving tools • These cores show economization • Found as early as 8000 BC on the Alaskan coast, 5000 BC on the Queen Charlottes and continue to 2000 BC • There is great variation in the tool found

  11. The Far NorthThe Paleo-Arctic Tradition c. 8000-5000 BC • The site of Anangula on the Aleutian chain was occupied for a long period of time • It is on a bluff • Dates range from 6100-5900 BC • Tools are made from microblades of various sizes • Evidence of elliptically shaped, semi-subterranean houses (entered from the roof?) • Accessible by boat only suggesting reliance of fish and sea mammals but there is no direct archaeological evidence for this

  12. The Far NorthThe Pacific coast 5000 BC – AD 1000 • An increasing emphasis on coastal adaptation likely began c. 5000 BC • By 3000 BC this way of life was common along the Aleutian chain and Kodiak Island • Climate is milder here and sea mammals abundant • Then environment is fairly consistent • By 3000 BC three cultural groups occupy this area • Question of when and why the Aleutians diverge from the Eskimoan stock of the mainland

  13. The Far NorthThe Pacific coast 5000 BC – AD 1000 • Kodiak Island • Over 7000 years of occupation • Ocean Bay tradition flourished from 5000- 2000 BC on marine mammal hunting • They used thrusting spears with large stone blades likely coated with aconite poison from Monkshood • Kachemak Tradition developed c. 1800 BC and lasted to AD 1000 • Hunted sea mammals, salmon and caribou • Worked slate into knifes (Ulu) • Used bone artefacts (projectile points) • From 1-1000 AD the artefacts are more elaborate

  14. The Far NorthThe Pacific coast 5000 BC – AD 1000 • From 1-1000 AD the artefacts are more elaborate (fishing net weights, stone lamps with human and animals figurines cared in them) • Large middens suggest a population increase • Practiced mortuary rituals (buried the dead intact or took parts for trophies) • After AD 1000 the Kachemak evolved into the historical Eskimo-speaking Koniag culture, which is heavily influenced by surrounding cultures

  15. Ulu dating to the Norton Stage 500 BC (10 cm) Left: Ocean Bay tradition projectile point Right: Kachemak tradition slate projectile point

  16. Oval stone lamp with a human figure inside, Kachamak Tradition

  17. The Far NorthThe Aleutian Tradition c. 2500 BC–AD 1800 • This tradition is widespread on the Aleutian Islands • The earliest site on the islands is Anangula dating to 6000 BC but… • Does this site represent ancestral Aleutian occupation on the islands? Or • Is there a mixing of the local groups with Eskimoid influences to create a more recent Aleut culture? Or • Did the Anangula people die out to be replace by a second occupation c. 2500 BC? • The last theory is called the Dual Tradition Model

  18. The Far NorthThe Aleutian Tradition c. 2500 BC–AD 1800 • At present there is no evidence for a cultural continuum on the islands • After 2500 BC the Aleutian Tradition is seen which differs from the early Paleo-Arctic sites – Dual Model is suggested • Aleutian sites have no microblade cores or gravers • They do have knapped lithic artefacts, rather than slate ones, bifacially trimmed projectile points and knives, elaborate bone tools • Tools are very variable between sites

  19. Bone artefacts from the Aleutian tradition

  20. The Far NorthThe Aleutian Tradition c. 2500 BC–AD 1800 • They hunted sea mammals and fish (cod and halibut) • The houses were elliptical to rectangular and dug about 0.5 m into the ground • They are roofed with driftwood and sod and likely entered through the roof • The Chaluka site was occupied on and off for thousands of years (2000 BC-AD 1000) • Semi-subterranean dwellings lined with stone slabs, whale bones and fire pits • Aleutian tradition lasted into historic times

  21. The Far NorthArctic Small Tool Tradition c. 2750-800 BC • In the Paleo-Arctic times small groups settled along the Alaskan Peninsula and to the south and east • By 2500 BC a new, highly distinctive tool tradition appears here called the Arctic Small Tool Tradition • Small blades and bladelets pointed at both ends, used as end or side barbs in antler or bone projectile points • Scrapers, gravers, burins, and adzed blades with polished working edges • Few organic artefacts have been found

  22. Arctic Small Tool tradition artefacts Top: Microblade and burin Bottom: Projectile point and side blade

  23. The Far NorthArctic Small Tool Tradition c. 2750-800 BC • The origins of this tradition are unclear • Some suggest that they come form a reindeer and fishing culture across the straight as they have the same tools • This implies that they arrived in boats during the summer months • Also suggested that they introduced the bow and arrow, as this weapon is effective in hunting large terrestrial animals, but how far this technology spread is unclear • Only by AD 700 was it well established

  24. The Far NorthArctic Small Tool Tradition c. 2750-800 BC • Sites are found from the Brooks Range to the Alaskan Peninsula and Kachemak Bay • On the peninsula sites are along salmon streams • On the coast they may have hunted sea mammals • In Kachemak Bay some permanent, square (4 m), semi- subterranean with a sloped entrance, a central hearth and sod-roofed structures were excavated • Most sites however are only small isolated lithic scatters (connected to hunting camps)

  25. The Far NorthThe Eastern Arctic c. 2000 – 500 BC • The first settlements of the eastern arctic date to c. 2000 BC • This is about the same time as the appearance of the Small Tool Tradition of the west • Sites are found along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, among the Canadian Archipelago islands and into western Greenland • Why the movement into this region is a mystery

  26. The Far NorthThe Eastern Arctic c. 2000 BC • Once the sites appear in the region two variants in tool forms from the ASTT appear • The Independence in the High Arctic • The Pre-Dorset in the Low Arctic • This difference may be the result of 2 early migrations • The first to the north (Independence) • The second, a different group that went further south (Pre-Dorset) • Or there may have been only one migration of the Independence and out of this group the Pre-Dorset emerge • Or it is an environmental adaptation?

  27. The Far NorthThe Independence I Stage 2500-500 BC • Tools are similar to the ASTT but are slightly larger • Bone needles, projectile points, harpoon heads with drilled holes for the line and burins were common • Sites on the NE coast of Greenland are marked with stone circles • As many as 20 at one site but most are single • Tents were likely made out of musk ox hides • There are storage places made out of flagstones • A central hearth is common • Likely a highly mobile group relying on the musk ox that needed to be well prepared for winter

  28. The Far NorthThe Pre-Dorset 2500-500 BC • These sites are located in the southern part of the Eastern Arctic and are linked with the ASTT • Early sites are located near Baffin Island and northern Labrador • This area has a diverse animal population • Caribou, musk ox, polar bear and other small animals were hunted with spears and bows • 5 types of seals were hunted using breathing holes and on the ice, along with walrus • Char was fished using weirs, traps and barbed spears

  29. The Far NorthThe Pre-Dorset 2500-500 BC • After 1300 BC the population increased west of the Hudson Bay • Were highly migratory focusing on caribou • East of this area sea mammals were the important resource • The Saqqaq Complex (2500-300 BC) • In Disko Bay on the western coast of Greenland a wealth of material has been found • Wooden artefacts, hafted shafts, ivory and bone artefacts and human remains • Slate microblades, heavy bifaces and endscrapers • The tools were crafted for particular functions

  30. Pre-Dorset and Dorset Harpoon heads from 1700 BC to AD 1000

  31. The Far NorthThe Eastern Arctic c. 2000 – 500 BC • At many of these sites the true complexity of the Arctic Small Tool Tradition is not revealed • Questions remain as to the relationships between the groups in the west and the east, but they all share common characteristics • Sites disappear throughout the east around 500 BC when climate decreases after the Altithermal

  32. The Far NorthThe Sub-Arctic c. 5000 – Present • As the ice retreated beginning around 15000 BP areas were open in the Sub Arctic • Vegetation began to move in followed by the animals and then people • Two groups of people move into this region in the Early and Mid Holocene • The first from west of the Hudson Bay • The second around the Great Lakes and spread along the St Lawrence Valley and northward

  33. The Far NorthThe Northern Archaic + 4000 – Present • The Northern Archaic tradition appears when the taiga belt begins to widen forcing the Paleo-Indian people living there to respond • Sites are found from Alaska to the southwest part of the NWT • They are distinguished from the Paleo-Arctic groups by their side-notched points, unifacial knives and endscrapers • These groups may be associated with the Athabaskans

  34. The Far NorthThe Shield Archaic c. 5000 – Present • These groups live in the forested region of the sub arctic • Sites on the shore of Great Slave lake date to 5000 BC • Caribou hunting was their primary activity in the northern fringes • In the south and west, deer, elk, moose were the staple prey • Both regions also fished and collected shellfish where possible

  35. The Far NorthThe Shield Archaic c. 5000 – Present • In the central Keewatin region groups camped along the rivers and lakes following the caribou • The tool is marked with lanceolate projectile points, discoidal biface knives and various scrapers • The Keewatin lanceolate point eventually developed into various stemmed forms as the projectile becomes smaller

  36. The Far NorthThe Maritime Archaic ? 7000 – Present • These sites are found along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Labrador • They likely subsided on coastal recourses on a seasonal basis but relied on elk, moose, caribou and others in the winter • Some sites have longhouses • They were engaged in long distance trade • Port aux Choix, Newfoundland was a sea mammal community from 2000-1000 BC • Had more than 100 ocher adorned graves • The deceased were dressed in hides with great bead work, and had ivory and bone daggers

  37. The Far NorthWhen the Europeans Arrive • Groups living in the Maritime region and other areas of the sub artic slowly evolved into the Native American groups living in the region when the Europeans arrived • Beothucks of Newfoundland • Innu of Quebec and Labrador • Cree and Ojibwa of the Hudson Bay Lowlands • Chipewyan west of the Hudson Bay • Other Athabaskan speaking peoples of the northwest

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